by Sarah D. SparksThe nation’s premiere federal testing program is poised to provide a critical window into how students’ motivation, mindset, and grit can affect their learning.Read the rest of the story at Education Week.

by Shen Lu and Hilary WhitemanBeijing (CNN)- Now breathe.Almost 9.5 million high school students in China have just finished possibly the most important exam of their lives.Read the rest of the story at CNN.com.

Friday is graduation day at an unusual K-8 school in California — and there is only one graduate. He’s part of an experiment in San Francisco called AltSchool that could re-define how your kids get an education, reports Ben Tracy.Read and watch the rest of the story at CBS News.

Over 3,000 protesters have gathered in Moscow to call for science and education reforms in Russia, amid budget cuts and the closure of a leading scientific foundation over a “foreign agent” tag.Read the rest of the story at RT.

Photo credit:  Sakeeb SabakkaNew data show that 81 percent of class of 2013 graduated in four yearsby Holly Yettick and Sterling C. Lloyd The on-time graduation rates in the nation’s public high schools have hit historic highs. The U.S. Department of Education reports that 81 percent of the class of 2013 graduated within four years, as tabulated by the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR).Read the rest of the story at Education Week.

by Franz StrasserWhile the cost of college education in the US has reached record highs, Germany has abandoned tuition fees altogether for German and international students alike. An increasing number of Americans are taking advantage and saving tens of thousands of dollars to get their degrees.Read the rest of the story at BBC News.

by Katherine ManganStudents deserve to be educated in an environment free from sexual harassment, and professors, to speak and write freely about sensitive topics. But what happens when federal laws designed to protect those rights “butt heads,” as some say occurred during the fallout over a Northwestern University professor’s essays on what she termed “sexual paranoia” on college campuses?Read the rest of the story at The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

We will keep it short and sweet: Data decisions can be tricky for districts to navigate — sometimes downright mind-numbing. We have heard from some of you about the challenges and benefits of working with data. Take our survey to communicate your experiences with data and how these experiences impact your decision-making.//

Photo Credit: Daniel X. O’Neilby Fran Spielman and Lauren FitzPatrickWANTED: CEO for nation’s third-largest public school system to replace chief forced out by federal investigation.Read the rest of the story at the Chicago Sun-Times.

Sal Khan discusses Khan Academy’s impact, growth mindset, and how personalized, mastery-based learning is transforming education and SAT prep access.

For 180 days each year, most kids are in school, brains engaged and learning. Then along comes the summer and for many, learning comes to a screeching halt.It’s not like there’s absolutely no brain activity happening over the summer, but by the time they go back to school, many students forget some of the skills they learned. The Washington Post reports that in a recent survey, 66% of teachers say they spend most of the first month of school teaching concepts that students have forgotten over the break.

photo by Dahal vai ganeshfrom the Associated PressKATHMANDU — Thousands of children affected by last month’s earthquake in Nepal returned to schools on Sunday, a working day in the Himalayan nation, five weeks after the disaster killed more than 8,600 people and destroyed many homes.Read the rest of the story at NBCNews.com

by Joe Heim

Analysis suggests that Poland is the best country at turning economic growth into the wellbeing of its citizens.by George ArnettPoland is outperforming the UK when it comes to education as well as being the world leader in converting economic growth into the well-being of its citizens, according to a new report.The Sustainable economic development assessment (Seda) by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) measures wellbeing across 149 countries.Read the rest of the story at The Guardian.

For decades, “reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic” were considered the most fundamental subjects in American K-12 schools. These days, in order to boost our nation’s global competitiveness, many schools and colleges are emphasizing STEM subjects—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math—over the liberal and fine arts. The White House has even announced the goal of increasing by one million the number of students who receive undergraduate degrees in STEM subjects over the next decade.Read the rest of the story at Phys.org